Review: Suicide Squad

Now before I get into this review of Suicide Squad, I will say that way back in the early 90’s I became a bigger fan of Marvel Comics than DC Comics for what I believe are good reasons. This is still the case to this day, not making me a Marvel fan boy by any means. Not everything Marvel has released movie-wise has been a homerun. I truly want to see DC do well when it comes to their cinematic universe.

Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn in Suicide Squad

Unfortunately with Suicide Squad, I feel that DC has once again blown an opportunity to add something good to the DCU. I know they are only 3 movies into the current era of DC films, but for me, they have done very little as a fan. Now, before all the DC fans get up in arms, this isn’t going to be an all out thrashing of DC Comics.

Just a small one.

To me, this was supposed to be DC’s version of Guardians of the Galaxy. By that I simply mean this could’ve been DC’s break out movie for a comic series that has a cult following. The movie started out pretty freaking good. With the character introductions, I feel like they did a really good job giving back stories and dedicating to the ones predicted to have the bigger roles.

Jared Leto as The Joker in Suicide Squad

The music was also pretty top notch with songs from 21 pilots, Action Bronson, and Rick Ross to name a few.Another highlight for me was the job the actors did with what they were given. Will Smith as Deadshot, Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn, and Viola Davis as Amanda Waller stole the movie for me with their performances. I even liked the Jared Leto’s Joker even though tattooed gold chain wearing gangster Joker isn’t really my cup of tea.

See, that wasn’t so bad was it?

Now on to what I had issues with in this movie. Once the character intros ended and the main story took off the fuzzy feeling wore off. Everything after that felt really rushed and badly thrown together. It was like, “Oh, hey guys, subway attack just happened. Here hang these bombs around your neck. Off you go. Your clothes and weapons will be there when you arrive. Chop chop.” There was just way too much going on. It was as if they shot way too much footage and then had trouble deciding on what exactly should’ve been used in the film to make it coherent. I’m sure this is the case in a lot of movies hence the term “cutting room floor” but here I think they chose a lot of the wrong stuff.

Will Smith as Deadshot in Suicide Squad

As amped up as people were to see a reimagination of the Joker I feel like his role in this movie being a side story with Harley Quinn really deserved it’s own movie. Maybe a spinoff or maybe just as part of a Batman film, but here, it just added another layer for what already seemed a jumbled mess.

Cara Delevingne as Enchantress in Suicide Squad

I won’t even get into the main villain(s) too much, let’s just say I didn’t like them at all. This is a movie that I really wanted to be blown away by but I ended up leaving the film saying “DC blew it….again.”I’ll stay optimistic as DC has more films slated to release such as the Justice League of America.

Jay Hernandez as Diablo in Suicide Squad

By the way, Doomsday ripped through most of the JLA before him and Superman killed each other in the Death of Superman back in the 90’s. Seems like DC half-assed covered that base in Batman vs Superman, but that movie I’ll leave be for concern of giving myself a heart attack.

Good thing is it’s still early enough in this cinematic universe that with a few good releases things could turn around and all can be forgiven. Otherwise, with Marvel being well on track to releasing the Infinity War, DC’s efforts might end up getting completely overshadowed in this unspoken comic book movie war